VIJAYAWADA: Excise minister Kollu Ravindra has asked the officials concerned to implement new excise policy of the state to be announced shortly in a sincere and effective manner.
Reviewing the progress of the drafting of the new excise policy with excise department officials of 13 districts here Monday, the minister said the government will come out with a policy acceptable to all. “We studied excise policies being implemented in different states like Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and will be visiting some more states on April 15 and 16. The new excise policy will be finalised by June end and implemented from July 1 onwards,” he said
He said as promised during the elections and keeping in mind the demands of women, measures were taken to remove belt shops in the state.
Till date 7,800 belt shops have been closed down and cases were booked against those operating them. The minister said officials have been asked to act tough against those selling liquor in excess of MRP.
“We have initiated measures to ensure there are no illicitly distilled liquor in the state and recently conducted raids on ID liquor brewing dumps in Chittoor and East Godavari district and arrested 70 people in this connection,” he said. He called upon excise officials to strive to make the functioning of the department transparent.